Control4 Cuts Power Costs

With the Australian state governments slowly rolling out programs to provide every Australian home with a smart meter, Control4 is launching its Energy Management System in Australia this month.

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The EC-100 enables users to communicate with their smart meters via an interactive in-home display to view power usage and thus monitor their activities accordingly to save money.

The device also acts as a touchscreen control panel for compatible smart home devices, allowing control of lighting, thermostats, home theatre systems. Using an advanced analytics engine, the EC-100 can collect and analyse energy use data, allowing the user to see what devices use the most energy and track the energy history.

"We see ourselves as an operating system for the home," said Paul Nagel, Vice President of Control4, at a demonstration of the device in Sydney today. "The EC-100 brings together all the systems in your home into one common interface."

Control4 CEO Will West said, "The ability to control devices in the home, particularly during peak load and demand response events, is the key component to energy management that only Control4 provides."

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"By providing an easy-to-use, engaging consumer experience that's coupled with automated device control, utilities can help their customers play a far more active role in managing energy use, which will contribute to generation and distribution efficiencies."

The device can also help users calculate electricity costs and track billing information, and can program automatic shut-down of devices that are not being used. Wi Fi support means that users can also use the EC-100 to check weather and traffic reports, view digital photos, listen to podcasts and more.